Nine minutes away!

Only nine minutes of running till I make it to 250km and level green. Whoo! I had hoped I'd get there in today's run, but I went out for a continuous run, didn't ask my ipod how far I'd gone/how fast I was going, and had a great run and finished feeling good. So it'll have to wait till Thursday. I may have had a few celebratory drinks already though!

Milestone Number 2 (and a bit of retail therapy)

I did my first hour-long run in a very long time today. It hurt like hell towards the end, but managed not to wimp out and stop when my legs were begging me to just stay still at about 55min, so I'm pretty chuffed. And it was week of three x 3 - seems like I'll manage to keep going, whoo! I'm celebrating with bread, cheese and some yummy but very oily salami I found in the big supermarket yesterday. Quite a find in Asia! Not the healthiest of post-run meals, but my Nike+ thingy said I burned almost 700 calories, so I suppose I deserve it. And maybe a beer later too.

So, runs for this week:

Tuesday - 3.72k, 22:37 continuous running

Thursday - 6.14k, 38:50 5min run, 90sec walk, runs a bit faster

Sunday - 9.48k, 1:00:06 (just made it!) 5.5min run, 90 walk

Total - 19.35k, 2:01:22, av pace 6:16/k

And I'm also only 6k away from green on Nike+! Next run should do it I think - there'll definitely be a beer or two to celebrate that.

But far more importantly, I decided to go treat myself to some new running gear yesterday - I've been running in the same shorts and vest since I got here in September! I live fairly close to a huge supermarket/department store called Lotte Mart - it's a bit of a monstrosity, but at least it has a bit of sports clothing in addition to all the other crap (a safe with a picture of puppies on the front anyone?). There's the usual Nike and Adidas, but mostly tennis clothes, or things that would be far too warm to wear outside, and a tiny bit of New Balance. I confused the shop girls by actually wanting to try things on I think! Or maybe it was the armful of shirts that I took in with me. Anyway, found that all the sizings were Asian sizes, not normal sizes, so had to go get a load more bigger ones. Cue more confusion and giggles. I ended up with a plain New Balance vest - says it's ultrawick, but it's a bit warmer than the one I usually run in, and a pair of men's New Balance shorts. All the girl ones were tiny! Doll-sized even, and I am most definitely not doll-sized. I like these ones though, very airy, and very light. The Nike ones were quite thick, and a bit restrictive. And the colour matches my top much better, which is obviously far more important!

Here, you look!

I would like to point out that the weird way I'm standing is because I couldn't really fit me in the midget-height mirror we have, not because I have a freakishly twisted pelvis!

My legs hurt. Whimper!

Off-the-couch Randomness Project 1 COMPLETE!

OK, I'm cheating a little bit because I did about 90% of this project sitting on the couch watching endless sci-fi, but at least I was doing something constructive while I was sitting on the couch!

I made my boyfriend a fabric backgammon board for his birthday in July, and I was left with a huge amount of little scraps of fabric which I could either chuck out or turn into something a bit weird looking. I liked the fabric, so I went with the last one and started a patchwork scraps bag. This was in October or November I think, and I've only just finished it now! I love it, but sewing all the pieces together took a long time and got rather boring! And it used up most of my scraps, so I don't really have anything to keep in it at the moment, which is a little sad!

Here's some pics for you.

Inside-out before I started on the lining. Look at all the stitching I h

ad to do!

Just before the finish. At the top you can see the fabric that got used for the lining. It's from one of my favourite tops that wore through on the back, good to use it somewhere else.

Ta daa!! Finished bag. Also with a fine view of my apartment complex and rather dirty windows.

And here's the best bit - it's reversible! Completely unintended, but still pretty cool I think.

First Week of Three (and baking fail)

I passed a small milestone yesterday - I completed my second consecutive three-run-week in about two years. I really had fun in all three runs too, which also hasn't happened for a while. The milestone is for the second week, not the first, just in case the first one was a not-to-be-repeated-for-months fluke. But it wasn't, hurray! Now I just have to keep it up, eek....

Anyway, here are those all important stats.

Tuesday 15th: 7.77km, 51:56

Thursday 17th: 4.03km, 23:59

Sunday 20th: 6.06km, 38.40

Total for week: 17.87km, average pace 6:25/km

I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. I haven't felt like a 'runner' in ages, but I've been progressing steadily (if slowly) since January, and now that I'm up to running three times a week I feel much closer to being able to say I'm a runner without feeling like a fraud.

Another thing that will help me shake off the creepy conman feeling is passing the 250km mark on Nike Plus. I use a little gizmo that plugs into my ipod to track the length and times of runs, then my ipod sticks them on the Nike Plus website. Clever eh? Anyway, the website has different levels depending on how far you've run. I'm on orange level at the moment, but am only 26km away from 250k and moving up to level green! Getting away from the nasty orange background will be wonderful, and I'll feel a lot less like a newbie.

My other off-the-couch activity yesterday didn't go quite so well. I attempted to make some shortbread biscuits last weekend, but the recipe was a bit off so I didn't put enough butter in, but realised too late, and ending up having to stick an egg in instead. Hence rather cakey biscuits. Last night I had another go - I've decided I really want some shortbread, no matter how long it takes! They didn't go to plan either. Straight after last night 's run I huffed and puffed and probably dripped sweat around the supermarket downstairs before they shut to grab some butter for the next batch, much to the amusement/horror of the staff. However, in my haste I forgot to get more flour. I did remember shower gel, but obviously not much use for biscuits. So this time I ended up with too much butter. See the oily results for yourself:

Bit of a baking fail. They look much better than last time, but don't be fooled, they are greasy and hard as rocks! Maybe next weekend I'll get it right...

Peeling Myself Off the Sofa

That's basically what this blog will be about. Mostly my efforts to get better at running, but also other random things that get me away from endless cheap DVDs and TV box-sets. Anyway, welcome, pour yourself a cup of tea and make yourself at home.

So, on to introductions! My name is Louise, I'm originally from the UK, but at the moment I live in Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City if you're being pedantic, but no-one really calls it that, except Hanoians and tourists) with my boyfriend. I work as an English as a Foreign Language teacher, so I move around a lot. Other places I've worked are Hungary, China and Taiwan. I think Hungary is my favourite so far, but I'd love to live in Germany too.

I ran on and off while I was at school, but usually only because we had to. I always preferred it to team sports though - I'm not the most coordinated of people, and PE lessons were more ritual humiliation than exercise, so running was relatively appealing. At uni I started doing a bit of jogging to try to burn off the ridiculous amounts of beer I was drinking, but it didn't go too well. I'd basically just go out and run for as long as I could. Not particularly fun! I started running

more seriously when I was living in Budapest, and fell in love. It probably helps that Budapest is a fantastic place to run - it's mostly flat, there are foot paths down the river, there's a running track around Margit Sziget, an island in the middle of the Danube, and the roads are quiet enough if you want to go explore around town. How could you not love running here?

I did a 6.5k race after a few months, and didn't come last (yay!), ran in a relay marathon (I only did 7k, not the greatest achievement), and then signed up for the Budapest Half Marathon in September 2009. I got round, and stumbled across the finish line in 2:12:27. Admittedly with (more than) a few walk breaks though, so I can't saw I really 'ran' it. After that work and studying and life got a bit too much to fit much running around, and I didn't really manage much for most of the next year.

So, now we get to Saigon. It's hot, it's humid, it's horribly polluted, it's busy. Not exactly the best running location. But I am determined to get back into running. I love running for the feeling of mental space, as well as feeling that I've done something good for myself, and I need that here more than ever! After some half-hearted treadmill training for the Siem Reap half marathon in December (which, sadly never happened), I decided that I would have to get away from the gym and get outside if I was going to run, no matter how uncomfortable it was. That was January, and I'm still going.

I started this blog to help me motivate myself to keep going. I'm progressing rather slower than I would like, and find it really hard to get out of the door as runs are nowhere near as interesting, or enjoyable as in Budapest. In fact, they're often downright boring, painful plods around the same circuit. There is also an almost complete lack of races in this part of the world, something which I usually find a great motivator. I'm hoping to be able to run 10k non-stop before we leave (I'm up to 5k at the moment), and do another half-marathon in spring 2012.

I also find it hard to motivate myself to do pretty much anything these days. Lying on the couch watching DVDs is much easier than getting out into the sweltering heat to do something in town, and now I'm in such a DVD-rut I find it difficult even to do other things around the house, like baking or craft projects. I'm hoping this blog will help me do some more interesting things. Not sure quite what though!

So, I'll be posting here about my running, and all the other randomness I will hopefully be miraculously motivated into doing.